Good Neighbors and Lost Cities

Abstract

This article examines how the policies and institutions of the Good Neighbor era in the 1930s and 1940s promoted the Inca archaeological site of Machu Picchu as a tourist destination and a national symbol of Peru. The article investigates the transnational effort that linked US goals to foment hemispheric solidarity with activities of the Peruvian state, as well as local aims to promote the Cuzco region, the former heart of the Inca empire where Machu Picchu is located. The rise of Machu Picchu during the Good Neighbor era points to the importance of understanding how tourism development in Latin America served the aims of US foreign policy while creating a transnational space for national and local actors to assert their own cultural and political goals.